Tuesday, May 31, 2011

"In a strange and angering move by an Egyptian citizen, a lion is to be fought and killed in an effort to promote tourism to the country. The report has sparked outrage among animal welfare activists in the country, who have called on the government to intervene to stop the killing. “This is disgusting, to fight a lion to death to raise public attention is so wrong,” one animal rights activist in Egypt said in an email to Bikya Masr detailing the situation." (thanks Bert)

"Father Riccardo Seppia, a 51-year-old parish priest in the village of Sastri Ponente, near Genoa, was arrested last Friday, May 13, on pedophilia and drug charges. Investigators say that in tapped mobile-phone conversations, Seppia asked a Moroccan drug dealer to arrange sexual encounters with young and vulnerable boys. "I do not want 16-year-old boys but younger. Fourteen-year-olds are O.K. Look for needy boys who have family issues," he allegedly said." (thanks A.)

"Religious conservative groups, whether Muslim or Christian or other, have always sought to impose moralistic controls on family, sexuality and personal conduct. They also seek to control and censor cultural productions in conformity with religious doctrine and ‘respect for religion’. Legislation to those effects is difficult in Turkey, being under the watch of European institutions. Still, in 2004, the AKP parliamentary majority, supported by Erdogan, introduced legislation criminalising adultery. Erdogan backed down in the face European objections and widespread protests. By 2005 it became clear that EU accession would be unlikely in the foreseeable future, which lowered the pressure on the AKP to conform to European sentiment. Will this make it more likely for future moralistic legislation? Apart from the law, however, there are local, municipal and communal pressures towards moralistic conformity. Alcohol consumption has always been an emblematic target for Islamists everywhere. After the success of the then Refah Party in the 1994 municipal elections in Istanbul, the mayor of Beyoglu, the prime cosmopolitan entertainment district of Istanbul, tried to restrict the visibility of drinking by requiring establishments to hide drinkers behind curtains. This was greeted by outrage, demonstrations, and threats by the military, which forced a speedy withdrawal. That was a different age. Now, there are many reports of bans and restrictions on bars and liquor shops in many provinces, though obviously not in the main urban centres. The taxes on alcohol, however, have been raised in recent years." (thanks Sameer)

So this guy tries to do the act that he performed in Libya. The reaction by Syrian dissident intellectuals in France was swift. They asked him to butt out and they pointed out his Zionist track record and said that the Syrian opposition movements needs no support from his ilk.

"A senior IDF officer in the Military Police Corps is being charged with an indecent act and seven counts of sexual harassment, Ynet learned. Lieutenant-Colonel Oren Julian, commander of the Military Police's training base and former Prison 4 commander, has been dismissed and will soon face trial." If he was Arab, American liberal feminists would be marching and calling for ban on visits by Arab generals to US.

"Newly discovered documents indicate that the British government concealed how often it administered so-called "virginity tests" to female immigrants hoping to enter the country in the 1970s on marriage visas.
The documents, unearthed by legal researchers Marinella Marmo and Evan Smith from Australia's Flinders University, showed that the tests – meant to prove that women coming into Britain to marry were virgins – had been administered more than 80 times."

"A senior Egyptian general admits that "virginity checks" were performed on women arrested at a demonstration this spring, the first such admission after previous denials by military authorities." (thanks Alison)

"The United States pulled its human rights officer from Bahrain last week after he'd become the subject of a weeks-long campaign of ethnic slurs and thinly veiled threats on a pro-government website and in officially sanctioned newspapers. Ludovic Hood left the island nation on Thursday. During his final days in Bahrain, Hood was given security protection equal to that of an ambassador, U.S. officials said." The US won't say a word.

Comrade Talal (a brilliant scientist) shared with me this assessment of the Arab spring: "The evidence is now clear that the first phase of the Arab uprisings has failed to achieve significant results beyond changing the top leadership in Tunis and Egypt. The Libyan uprising is a sham, with much of the fighting probably conducted by special forces of Nato countries (let alone their air forces). Baharin, you know better, and Syria and Yemen are disasters. Hopefully, phase two will unfold better than the first one." I could not agree more.

"The Northern Oil Company of Iraq has forcibly relocated the President of the Kirkuk Oil and Gas Workers Union, Jamal Abdul-Jabbar, to a remote location. Jamal recently led a major walk out in support of better rights for contract workers and for a better, safer working environment. This forced relocation is a common tactic of oil sector employers in Iraq hoping to remove union activists from their positions in the union, and deter other workers from taking action, but global pressure from unions often prevents such management bullying, so we are appealing for urgent action - not least because the International Labour Conference is taking place in Geneva and the Iraqi Government, which controls the Northern Oil Company, will be particularly sensitive to further allegations of trade union repression." (thanks Shawna)

Regarding the regular cases of Western Zionists who teach at AUB. Just imagine. Just imagine if an Arab-American or European-American or any American is allowed to teach at an Israeli university and permitted to advocate for the Palestinians while holding his/her job? Can you imagine? This is the analogy.

"Blogger Hossam El-Hamalawy and television host Reem Maged were given a summons on Monday to appear before military prosecution after Maged screened on her show on Thursday Hamalawy criticising the role of military police, holding the head of the military police responsible for torturing activists." (thanks Ahmet)

"Still, it may explain why the rebels’ Transitional National Council has so far refused to reveal the identities of most of its members. (This is a big issue for the United States, which has not recognized the rebels, at least in part out of concern over who its leaders really are.)"

This is a classic and typical example. A Hariri MP, Ahmad Fatfat, who talks about democracy and human rights in Lebanon, gives an interview to a Saudi newspaper and talks about his feelings about the Saudi King.

"Jerusalem policemen arrested a Palestinian seven-year-old child, relatives said on Sunday, claiming that the boy was battered by police officers during his arrest." Can you imagine the uproar if a Muslim country held a seven-year-old Jewish child? Can you imagine the international condemnations? Can you imagine how conferences and fora would be held to discuss the affair? Can you image the debates at the UN Security Council?

Bahraini comrades sent me this: "As you may know the oppressors in Bahrain are targeting professional women arresting from their places of work or study. Many have disappeared into military style prisons and have not had access to lawyers or their families. The few who have been released report sexual attacks, verbal and physical insults and threats and other forms of torture. I attach for your attention a spreadsheet with the names of only 55 of these detainess. You will note that one of those arrested is a pregnant woman who happens to be the wife of an activist. Many others are young women in their early 20's. One of these young ladies is a poet and a student teacher who was arrested after 4 of her brothers were threatened at gunpoint to turn their sister in. No other Arabic regime has used torture and arrest against women to crush protests in this systematic and brutal manner. Yet media outlets in the west and Aljazeera Arabic are largely silent on these abuses in stark and shameful contrast to the coverage given to other protests. I ask you to urge the young women who read your blog to do whatever they can to call for the release of these detainees." Visit here for the "Justice for Bahrain" campaign.

"Egypt's foreign minister, Dr Nabil El Arabi, has affirmed that the detention of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails and the torture and killing of some, "represents a flagrant violation of the Fourth Geneva Convection and the principles of human rights and international humanitarian laws". He added, "These violations require urgent investigation and the prosecution of those responsible for inhumane practices before an international tribunal.""

"In a period that saw historians like Niall Ferguson recommend the British Empire as a model for the exercise of American power abroad, the connection between Churchill’s imperialism and his racial prejudice became another major problem. It was most thoroughly addressed by Richard Toye in “Churchill’s Empire” (2010), which fair-mindedly explored the reasons Churchill’s “humanitarianism did not imply a belief in racial equality.” Toye often writes admiringly of Churchill, but does not shy away from the ugliness of some of his views — like his confession that “I hate people with slit-eyes and pig-tails,” or his nostalgia for the empire’s “jolly little wars against barbarous peoples.” More serious than racist remarks is the charge leveled at Churchill in a book by Madhusree Mukerjee, Churchill’s Secret War: The British Empire and the Ravaging of India During World War II (Basic Books, $28.95). Mukerjee lays responsibility for the Bengal famine of 1943, which resulted in the deaths of some three million people, right at Churchill’s doorstep. She sharpens her point by drawing provocative analogies between the English and the Nazis. At the height of the famine, she writes, some relief kitchens in Bengal were offering the dying just 400 calories’ worth of rice a day, “at the low end of the scale on which, at much the same time, inmates at Buchenwald were being fed.”"

"Zamperini was a bombardier on a B-24, and at the very time he was being tortured by the Japanese, other bomber crews, made up of men no better or worse than he, carried out “Operation Gomorrah” — the weeklong raid on Hamburg, Germany, that in July 1943 killed some 40,000 civilians and destroyed virtually the entire city." And "America lost 143,000 soldiers in the fight against Germany, Davies points out, while the Soviet Union lost 11 million."

"Afghan officials said Sunday that a NATO airstrike had killed 14 civilians, most of them women and children, in the southern province of Helmand on Saturday night.

Local officials said the strike was aimed at Taliban fighters and missed, hitting two family homes. But in a conflicting account, a high-level NATO official said Sunday night that nine civilians were killed in the strike, which was aimed at five insurgents who attacked a coalition foot patrol and killed a Marine. The insurgents continued to fire from inside a compound when NATO forces called in the strike."

""Here is my house," he says, sitting on the remains of a stone wall in whose crevices wild flowers and saplings cling. "Now only the corners remain. Here is the taboun [outdoor oven] where my mother used to bake bread. The smell!" With distant eyes, he describes an idyllic childhood in a place he calls paradise, where families helped one another and children played freely amid almond and fig trees and on the rocks around the village's natural spring. The place is Lifta, an Arab village on the north-western fringes of Jerusalem, for centuries a prosperous, bustling community built around agriculture, traditional embroidery, trade and mutual support. But since 1948, shortly before the state of Israel was declared, it has been deserted. The population, according to the Palestinian narrative of that momentous year, was expelled by advancing Jewish soldiers; the people abandoned their homes, say the Israeli history books. Lifta was one of hundreds of Arab villages taken over by the embryonic Jewish state. But it is the only one not to have been subsequently covered in the concrete and tarmac of Israeli towns and roads, or planted over with trees and shrubs to create forests, parks and picnic areas, or transformed into Israeli artists' colonies. Some argue that Israel set out to erase any vestige of Palestinian roots in the new country."

Comrade Joseph writes: "What is it about Jewish and Arab children that privileges the first and spurns the second in the speeches of President Barack Obama, let alone in the Western media more generally? Are Jewish children smarter, prettier, whiter? Are they deserving of sympathy and solidarity, denied to Arab children, because they are innocent and unsullied by the guilt of their parents, themselves often referred to as "the children of Israel"? Or, is it that Arab children are dangerous, threatening, guilty, even dark and ugly, a situation that can only lead to Arabopaedophobia - the Western fear of Arab children?
Innocence and childhood are common themes in Western political discourse, official and unofficial. While it is a truism to state that since the end of European colonialism the US and Europe have been, at the official and unofficial levels, friendly to and supportive of the Zionist colonial project and hostile to Palestinians and Arabs in their resistance to Zionism, the expectation would be that a West that insists rhetorically on the "universalism" of its values would show at least a rhetorical commitment to the equality of Arab and Jewish children as victims of the violence visited on the region by Zionist colonialism and the resistance to it. Yet, the only Western sympathy manifest is to Jewish children as symbols of Zionist and Israeli innocence. This Western sympathy is deployed primarily to denounce Arab guilt, including the guilt of Arab children."

"The drama began at the end of the fight, when the referee signaled a handshake between the contestants. But Darwish ignored the order and began leaving. Several moments later, after repeated requests, the Egyptian walked to the center of the mattress, bowed to the referee and left."

Sunday, May 29, 2011

An inside source at AUB tells me about a brewing political scandal. Here is the story from my source: "Munib Masri Jr., 22, grandson of Munib Masri, was shot in Maroon El Rass, lost his spleen and left kidney and injured his spine which might render him paralyzed for all his life! Prior to the incident, he was suspended for one year at AUB because of an incident that took place on campus. A few days ago, AUB President proposed to the University Disciplinary Committee to cut down on the one year suspension and to readmit him if he will soon recover from his serious wounds. One of the committee members, P. Lewtas (my guess is that he is...), sent the email below to the Committee members including the President and Provost. It is nauseating and the strange thing, no one to my knowledge has responded to his email!" And in the email that this Canadian professor sent he said: "I understand that Munib first hurled abuse at the Israeli soldiers, then flung rocks at them, then started pushing through the barbed-wire fence between himself and them...." I was sent the whole email but I have just shared that one passage. It is a shame that no member of the disciplinary committee has yet responded to his lousy message.

PS If the Canadian seemingly Zionist professor wants to explain his disgusting behavior, I will allow him to respond here but I will sure respond. On his website, he also sounds patronizing about the students that he teaches at AUB as he said: "AUB students are surprisingly good." Surprising why? Because they are not white?

Al-Ba`th is most bitter against itself. Intra-Ba`th rivalries and feuds are the most bitter by far. Remember the Syrian-Iraqi Ba`thist rivalries. The other day, a former Syrian leader of the Ba`th, Shibili `Aysami, was kidnapped from near his grandson's house in `Alay in Lebanon. He is 86-years old. It is very likely that Syrian mukhabrat snatched him to avenge for his past support for the Iraqi branch of the Ba`th party.

I do watch Syrian state TV in order to look at the official propaganda of the lousy regime. Now they refer regularly to developments in Syria: but always as "the external conspiracy" against Syria. The rhetoric is suffocatingly chauvinist Syrian nationalist (mimicking Lebanese Phoenician nationalism). They also refer to the "criminal gangs". But why did we not hear of those criminal gangs before the protests? And for a regime that bases its political legitimacy on providing security to its people, it is undermining its own claims of legitimacy with such propaganda. One thing that bothers me about the crisis of Syria; Bashshar Al-Asad revealed himself to be a most arrogant potentate. His speech before the puppet parliament will be taught at Damascus University in courses on "past regime propaganda."

"Meanwhile, Qatar has been talking to oil-rich Gulf partners about a new plan to create a Middle East Development Bank to support Arab states in transitions to democracy. It has been inspired by the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development that helped to rebuild the economies and societies of eastern bloc countries at the end of the cold war. One person familiar with the Qatari plan for a Middle Eastern development bank said it envisaged tens of billions of dollars of yearly lending for political transitions. He said Qatar was seeking the support of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates for the initiative." (thanks Sultan)

The other unmentioned side of the opening of Rafah crossing: "Mufid al Masry, 46, was so excited about his first trip to Egypt that he couldn't sleep the night before he set out for the Rafah border crossing, which Egypt's ruling military council ordered opened Saturday under new hours and fewer restrictions for Palestinian travelers. So when Egyptian border guards rejected him, citing security concerns, Masry grew belligerent as other Palestinians at the terminal watched in sympathetic silence. An officer ordered him to stop shouting, which only made Masry angrier. "I've been locked in Gaza for the past seven years and just wanted a breath of fresh air!" he said. "If you were locked up for seven years, wouldn't you be yelling like me?" The Egyptian government's decision to permanently open its border with Hamas-controlled territory was heralded — or feared — as a sign of a new Egypt, one willing to risk U.S. and Israeli rebukes to provide a lifeline to Gaza's 1.5 million residents and to break from the policies of toppled President Hosni Mubarak. But Saturday's landmark opening of the Rafah crossing ended with a fizzle. By dusk, just 400 Palestinians had crossed into Egypt, and another 30 were turned back because their names appeared on a security "blacklist," according to a senior Egyptian border officer who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to make public statements. About 150 Palestinians returned to Gaza from Egypt." (thanks Laleh)

"Britain is training Saudi Arabia's national guard – the elite security force deployed during the recent protests in Bahrain – in public order enforcement measures and the use of sniper rifles. The revelation has outraged human rights groups, which point out that the Foreign Office recognises that the kingdom's human rights record is "a major concern". In response to questions made under the Freedom of Information Act, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed that British personnel regularly run courses for the national guard in "weapons, fieldcraft and general military skills training, as well as incident handling, bomb disposal, search, public order and sniper training". The courses are organised through the British Military Mission to the Saudi Arabian National Guard, an obscure unit that consists of 11 British army personnel under the command of a brigadier. The MoD response, obtained yesterday by the Observer, reveals that Britain sends up to 20 training teams to the kingdom a year. Saudi Arabia pays for "all BMM personnel, as well as support costs such as accommodation and transport". Bahrain's royal family used 1,200 Saudi troops to help put down demonstrations in March. At the time the British government said it was "deeply concerned" about reports of human rights abuses being perpetrated by the troops." (thanks Mohammad)

It took hours for the lousy newspaper, Al-Ahram, to shift its loyalty from Mubarak to his opponents. But Al-Ahram can't help itself: it served crudely the old regime and it now serves crudely the new regime. It did not cover the protests in Tahrir Square on Friday: instead, it covered the much smaller protest by Salafis and Ikhwan in support of the Egyptian regime. And comrade Alain Gresh in Cairo tells me that: "i am in egypt for some days and as you know there was this big demonstration on the 27th, to "push" the militaries and the government for Moubarak and his acolytes trial, against military courts, etc. The first page title of al ahram on the 28 is : "New Victory for the unity of the people and the army in Friday second anger demonstration"

Mere days after the Egyptian Military Council received a cash payment of $4 billion from Saudi Arabia, the Egyptian government uncovered an Iranian spy in Egypt. It is widely known in the Arab world that countries that receive cash payments from Saudi Arabia usually uncover Iranian plots days after the arrival of the cash.

Saturday, May 28, 2011

"An official at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) has warned that the Arab Spring revolutions might lead to the emergence of "regimes that are hostile towards the Israelis"." The Zionists are almost funny: they basically don't want the 350 million Arabs to do what they want and what they desire, but want them to do what is good for the 6 million Israelis. Hilarious.

Do you notice that the country that is least covered in terms of protests is Jordan? Yesterday, there were demonstrations that called for the downfall of the government and they were covered widely in the Arabic press (even the reactionary media of the Arab counter-revolution) but not in the Western press. Worse, in Western media they still invite Jordanian king to speak about the aspirations of the Arab youth. They really think that the guy is popular among young Arabs. Hilarious.

"Knesset Member Ayoob Kara said Saturday that Syrian opposition figures turned to him and asked that he help convince the international community to act against President Bashar Assad." This is why I never ever idolize wholesale an opposition movement: not in the Arab world and not in Iran. There are lousy corrupt and reactionary trends and movement in every protest movement but it does not mean that the protest itself should be delegitimized--whether in Syria or Bahrain or Iran or in Oman, etc. Yes, there are Hariri- and Saudi-funded reactionaries and Salafi kooks in the protest movement in Syria, but that does not mean that all those who are protesting in Syria should be dismissed as pro-Saudi or pro-Israel Salafites and reactionaries.

I watched part of the interview with Shaykh Ahmad As-Sayasnah of Dir`ah on Syrian regime TV. It was awkward interview and the fellow seemed very uncomfortable: or he was as comfortable as someone speaking while his genitals are being electrocuted. I don't have any evidence, but it was my own observation.

Oh, please. Spare us guidance from the Polish kooks of the religious right. "Seeking ways to support Arab uprisings, President Barack Obama is asking Polish leaders to use the lessons they learned during the fall of communism to aid fledgling democratic movements in the Middle East and North Africa."

"the group said in a communiqué that its aim was “to ensure that instability does not undermine the process of political reform.”...The pledge, an aide to President Obama said, was “not a blank check” but “an envelope that could be achieved in the context of suitable reform efforts.”"

"Old leftist political parties are re-emerging as though they have been frozen in time for the 30 years of the Mubarak police state to demand that the government again expand its role in the economy to help the poor, even at the price of discouraging foreign investors...In Tunisia, too, old leftist parties are trying to come back, and parts of the country’s strong labor movement are stepping up their demands or returning to radical roots."

He claimed that his wife punched herself. "“To be honest, I was irritable,” he told the court. “When I entered the kitchen I told the wife I was not very happy with Mrs Clark having visited. I had had nothing to eat all day and could not be bothered now.” He said the argument became more heated and he intended to drive away while his wife, an assistant deputy coroner, “cooled off”." (thanks Nu`man)

"The crossing was to open to people for eight hours a day from 9am local time, apart from vacations and Fridays, giving Gazans a gateway to the world as Rafah is the only crossing which does not pass through Israel. Under the long-awaited change, which excludes the flow of goods, people under the age of 18 or older than 40 require only a visa to pass, but those between 18 and 40 still need security clearance, officials said." (thanks Khaled)

"There are also suspicions that the kingdom is secretly providing money to extremist groups to hold back changes. Saudi officials deny that, although they concede private money may flow.

In 1952, after toppling the Egyptian king, Gamal Abdel Nasser worked to destabilize all monarchs, inspiring a regicide in Iraq and eventually the overthrow of King Idris of Libya. Saudi Arabia was locked in confrontation with Egypt throughout the 1960s, and it is determined not to relive that period. “We are back to the 1950s and early 1960s, when the Saudis led the opposition to the revolutions at that time, the revolutions of Arabism,” said Mohammad F. al-Qahtani, a political activist in Riyadh."

""Tantawi's history as Egyptian Defense Attaché in Pakistan in the 1980s — probably as a major conduit in the Saudi and US-led effort to send mujaheddin to fight the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan — deserves a closer investigation. The relationships Tantawi must have developed with key actors in that semi-covert war (which Egypt backed, with even al-Ahram carrying advertisements to "join the jihad" in Afghanistan) such as Prince Bandar. Hence the long-held rumor that not only Tantawi has close relations with the al-Sauds, but also that he is a religious conservative whose views would not be out of sync with the Muslim Brothers."" (thanks "Ibn Rushd")

"But that seems at least partly a display of Saudi pique, since the oil-for-military aid arrangement that has defined relations between the two for the past six decades is unlikely to be replaced soon. Saudi Arabia is negotiating to buy $60 billion in advanced American weapons, and President Obama, in his speech last week demanding that Middle Eastern autocrats bow to popular demands for democracy, noticeably did not mention Saudi Arabia. The Saudi ambassador, Adel al-Jubeir, sat prominently in the front row."

I will not sign any petition on Syria (or on any other Arab country--or Iran, for that matter) that calls for "reform". I can only sign petitions that call for the outright overthrow of the regime. It is clear from the blood record of Bashshar and from his arrogance that his regime is a continuation of his father's regime, the hopes of naive "reformists" notwithstanding. But the regime is responding to the crisis; not only with silly technical TV programs that lie, but also through staging of the "biggest" Syrian flag. When you can't feed the people freedoms and bread, feed them...flags.

"“This is a dangerous development that could lead to the smuggling of weapons, explosives and Al Qaeda agents into Gaza,” Silvan Shalom, a deputy prime minister from the right-wing Likud Party..." Look at this: they are now worried about the smuggling of Al-Qa`idah terrorists into Gaza. 1) Since when did the Palestinians host Al-Qa`idah? Even in the refugee camps of Lebanon there are no Al-Qa`idah terrorists; 2) Why is Israel bogusly pretending that they are worried about Al-Qa`idah in Gaza when it is clear that Al-Qa`idah in its history never targeted Israel and never lifted a finger to help the Palestinians? Al-Qa`idah specialized in killing civilians and not in killing Israels, and this explains its unpopularity among Arabs. 3) we know that Israel (like Arab regimes) conveniently lie about Al-Qa`idah to garner Western support and sympathy--and money.

The Arab counter-revolution is in full force. Aljazeera which was covering every yawn in Egypt until recently, decided that the massive demonstrations yesterday against the Egyptian Military Council were not important. Saudi media were even more brazen: they claimed (on the website of the news station of King Fahd's news station, Al-Arabiyya TV) that Egyptian ignored calls for demonstration. Saudi media are now advocating for the Egyptian Military Council which was just handed in $4 billion from the Saudi dictatorship.

Look at this repeated claim by the New York Times about yesterday's demonstrations in Egypt: "Tens of thousands of mostly liberal protesters again filled Tahrir Square on Friday..." No mention is made of the far more powerful leftists and secular Arab nationalists who were the real force yesterday.

"Egypt is also planning to exchange ambassadors with Iran, another source of Israeli worry that a post-Mubarak Egypt will be far less amenable to its interests. What is causing concern in Israel is, in fact, as much what the opening portends about Egypt’s new direction — and what next steps it might take toward Gaza — as the act itself. As the deputy defense minister, Matan Vilnai, said on Israel Radio, the expected opening of the Gaza-Egypt border “is the first stage in a difficult situation that Israel will be facing.”"

""No, no, America. No, no, Israel," they chanted. To set the tempo, they punctuated their march by calling out "Mahdi," a reference to the disbanded Mahdi Armymilitia." They did not know that they were referring to Al-Mahdi, after whom the Army was named. (thanks Nir)

If this was in a Muslim country, the story would have attained front-page prominence: "This may mean turning to an unlikely bedfellow—SGP, an orthodox Calvinist party best known for opposition to such modern horrors as female election candidates, gay teachers in Christian schools and Sunday trading. Mr Rutte and Mr Wilders hope to secure support from the SGP, which holds the seat they need, based on shared attitudes towards immigration restrictions, economic reforms and budget cuts. But that may not be enough. Perhaps anticipating this outcome, ahead of the Senate elections the government opted to keep the country’s obsolete blasphemy law and, earlier, dropped plans to allow widespread opening of shops on Sunday." (thanks Khelil)

There were figures at Al-Ahram Center for Subservience to the Egyptian regime who were a staple of Egyptian Mubarak propaganda in Saudi media. Those figures were also cited in the Western press like they were independent observers and analysts. Those same figures are now cited in Saudi AND Western media on the Egyptian revolution and they are asked to analyze it from "the inside" as if those were not people who backed Mubarak to his last hour in office. Who are they fooling? Take Jamal Abdul-Jawad: this is a crude and consistent propagandist for Mubarak and yesterday he appeared in Saudi media to criticize the demonstrations in Egypt from the standpoint of the ruling unelected Military Council.

"Mr. Saleh has been an ally of the United States on counterterrorism, but now American officials are considering pushing for United Nations resolutions or even sanctions in order to press him to put an end to the violence by signing the agreement and leaving power."

"These Shiite militias have emerged as perhaps the greatest threat to the 46,000 United States troops still in Iraq, military officials say. And a barrage of recent attacks — some of them deadly — has raised questions about the safety of Americans as the military withdraws troops and equipment in the months ahead. “There are plenty of groups who will be paid to kill the last Americans on their way out,” said Col. Douglas Crissman, the military commander who oversees Maysan and three other southern provinces. Officials say the attacks, coupled with an increase in anti-American leafleting and speeches by hard-line groups, seem to be aimed at tilting the highly charged public debate over whether American forces should be asked to remain in Iraq despite a deadline to leave by the end of the year. Mr. Sadr himself makes no secret of his strategy. “Yes, we are still resisting and striking bases, troops and vehicles, as long as they are in Iraq,” he told the BBC Arabic service on Thursday. “And there is no doubt with that. It’s an honor for us.” Southern Iraq is strategically important to the United States, even in the final days of the American deployment here. It is the point of entry for many of the weapons coming from Iran, particularly rockets and the shaped explosives used in improvised explosive devices, or I.E.D.’s, military commanders say, and thousands of departing troops and convoys will pass through the region as they head into Kuwait. Last week, militants hit a United States military base in Basra from seven miles away, and in a single day about 10 rockets were fired at the Green Zone in Baghdad, home to the American Embassy and a sprawling American military base. American officials say many of the militants have close ties to Iran or to Mr. Sadr, whose once-fearsome Shiite militia, the Mahdi Army, was largely demobilized after suffering humiliating defeats three years ago."

"The Global Peace Index crowned Iceland the world's most peaceful country, while the dubious honor of being named the world's most violent and chaotic country went to Somalia – which ranked at the bottom of the list – 153...New Zealand ranked second and Japan third. Denmark, Czech Republic, Austria, Finland, Canada, Norway and Slovenia rounded up the top 10, respectively. Israel did not fare so well and was ranked 145 – above Pakistan and Russia, but below Libya and Chad. Israel was ranked 144 in the 2010 GPI, and 119 in 2007."

Flash. There is a bombing of a UNIFIL target near Sidon. This came after a week in which people in South Lebanon expressed fierce opposition to UNIFIL due to their passivity and perceived complicity during the shooting by Israeli terrorist soldiers at the Lebanese-Palestinian border.

"Saudi officials have approached Pakistan, Malaysia, Indonesia and Central Asian states to lend diplomatic support—and potentially military assistance in some cases—to help stifle a majority Shiite revolt in Sunni-led Bahrain, a conflict that has become a symbol of Arab defiance against Iran. Saudi Arabia's efforts, though against a common enemy, signal increasing friction with the Obama administration. Its invitation to Pakistan in particular could complicate U.S. security goals in South Asia. The push also complicates U.S. efforts to guide popular uprisings in the Middle East toward a peaceful and democratic conclusion." (thanks Khaled)

"And Rep. Barbara Bollier, a Mission Hills Republican who supports abortion rights, questioned whether women would buy abortion-only policies long before they have crisis or unwanted pregnancies or are rape victims. During the House's debate, Rep. Pete DeGraaf, a Mulvane Republican who supports the bill, told her: "We do need to plan ahead, don't we, in life?" Bollier asked him, "And so women need to plan ahead for issues that they have no control over with a pregnancy?" DeGraaf drew groans of protest from some House members when he responded, "I have spare tire on my car." "I also have life insurance," he added. "I have a lot of things that I plan ahead for."" (thanks Sarah)

"Dispatches from Riyadh describe Saudi Arabia as "the world's largest women's prison". Those words are a quote from one female campaigner US diplomats have been in contact with, Wajeha al-Huwaider.

She too posted a video on YouTube in 2008 of herself driving. Saying millions of Saudi women were prisoners in their homes, she challenged male control over work and travel. She regularly tries to take a taxi to neighbouring Bahrain: "Al-Huwaider is divorced which means under Saudi law her ex-husband or her father or a brother would need to give her permission to leave the country. "Although she holds a valid passport, every time she tries to leave ... she is stopped at the border to Bahrain and turned around."" The headline of the article in the Guardian is so misleading: it falsely claims that the US put pressures when the documents don't leave that impression at all.

Those who write on the Middle East and are deceived by "liberal" rhetoric (in English) of some Saudi propagandists who they meet in Davos should know that those same "liberal" propagandists are now in the forefront of supporting the ban on women drivers.

Deputy Minister of Interior in Saudi Arabia, Ahmad Ibn `Abdul-`Aziz (someone should write a PhD dissertation on the genetic mutations and illnesses stemming from patterns of intermarriages in the House of Saud) commented on women and driving. He said that the government will implement the law to ban women from driving.

The assassination in Iraq was significant. The targeting of the man who was in charge of de-Bathification points to a stormy political future in Iraq. This is only the beginning, I think. when US troops leave, there will be so many scores to be settled. Too many.

The biggest problem i have with Aljazeera is not political and is not that it has become a pure voice for the Arab counter-revolution and for the dreadful Saudi-Qatari alliance. The problem is that it has become an example of bad journalism. I tuned in this morning to watch the news and I only got propaganda. Pure propaganda. They basically have become like trash talk radio in the US: they open the phone lines and--unlike US trash talk radio--they treat their anonymous callers like their own correspondents and ask them questions about political developments in Syria (the country of choice these days). And if the callers offer opinions that diverge from the agenda of Aljazeera, they are immediately shut off. Aljazeera the other day did not even cover the speech by Nasrallah, when it used to extensively provide live coverage of his speeches. Maybe it over did it in the past, just as it now underdoes it. Today, they barely covered the massive demonstrations in Tahrir Square, while allowing anonymous callers to report to them on Syria. They had a Youtube footage of a "massive demonstration" in a Syrian town when I was able to count around ten people. When it comes to Syrian developments, one has to struggle hard. On the one hand, you get crude and weird propaganda on Syrian regime TV (where they spend hours on technical topics, like "food security" or "irrigation in the 21st century"), and on the other hand you have the sensational and unreliable Saudi and Qatari propaganda outlets. One suffocates in these conditions. It is fair to say that Aljazeera suffered its most serious blow to its credibility since it went on the air.

"Bloggers have had a tough time winning legitimacy in the US, with US President Barack Obama only fielding the first question from a Huffington Post reporter at a White House briefing in 2009. But for Arab-American bloggers, the credibility they've earned writing about the "Arab Spring" is self-evident. One such blogger is As’ad AbuKhalil, who runs the The Angry Arab News Service. The Lebanese-born blogger has such disdain for American mainstream media – he was a freelance consultant for NBC and ABC news – that his writing has garnered the attention, as well as respect, of almost all commentators on the Middle East and Islam. AbuKhalil has appeared on numerous news programmes and has had his work published across international news outlets. One thing that separates him from others, is that “he is able to capture the sentiments of so many people on the ground in the region and has become almost a calling point for so many young people, including myself, who want to speak out,” said Ismail Hassan, another US-based blogger who writes under an assumed name." (thanks Mirvat)

What happened in Lebanon yesterday was most important. How the Hariri militia (organized as the Internal Security Forces and its Intelligence Apparatus) took over a tele-communications center and banned the Minister of Tele-communications from entering the building. There are suspicions that the Hariri Inc is running a secret third telephone network from that building, and may be involved in running a secret channel inside Syrian territory. The confrontation points to a dangerous route in Lebanese politics. But the idiots of March 8 decided to promote their agenda with the lousy billionaire, Najib Miqati (a triple faced man) who answers to his Syrian/Saudi/US handlers. Billionaires--tell Hizbullah--don't lead resistance movements and are never interested in resistance. The rise of Yasser `Arafat in the late 1960s did not occur in a vacuum: Palestinian millionaires (at the time--now they are billionaires) generously funded `Arafat to thwart the promising Palestinian resistance movement.

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Audaciously, US Embassy in Beirut issued a statement about a visit by a team from the Embassy to the Syrian-Lebanese border to check on the status of Syrian refugees there. I mean, what business is that for the embassy? Can you imagine if a team of the Lebanese Embassy in Washington, DC visited the US-Mexican border to check on the status of labor refugees there? Team members would most likely be either shot at or be sent promptly to Guantanamo. But then again: Lebanon is a country with no sovereignty; i.e. a country that should never have existed. It has only been created like Jordan to assist the terrorist state of Israel.

Comrade Sinan explains: "Contrary to all the brouhaha about Twitter and Facebook, what energized people in Tunisia and Egypt and elsewhere, aside from sociopolitical grievances and an accumulation of pain and anger, was a famous line of poetry by a Tunisian poet, al-Shabbi. Poetry, novels, and popular culture have chronicled and encapsulated the struggle of peoples against colonial rule and later, against postcolonial monarchies and dictatorships, so the poems, vignettes, and quotes from novels were all there in the collective unconscious. Verses were spontaneously deployed in chants and slogans and disseminated in clips. The revolution introduced new songs, chants, and tropes, but it refocused attention on an already existing, rich and living archive. Institutionally and structurally, the revolts further exposed how the state had neutralized certain intellectuals and writers and used them to legitimate its projects. The revolts reignited debates about the relationship between cultural production and state power. The revolts have already debunked the old cultural discourse and are threatening the dominant cultural elite, many of whose figures were at the service of state culture for a variety of reasons."

The speech was rather effective for Nasrallah: in that he was not tense or angry as he seemed to be in recent speeches. It was his old usual self: humorous and sarcastic. But that is about tone and theatrics. Politically, it was a weak speech especially on the Arab revolutions. He of course could not tell us why he can support the uprising in Tunisia and Egypt and Bahrain but not in Syria. His arguments were not convincing at all. He said that the difference is that Bashshar is more open. Open? Where? The prisons and dungeons are open but that is about it. He wants the Syrians to support the Syrian dictatorship which is an untenable position to take, historically speaking. He then invoked the Syrian intervention in the Lebanese civil war: an intervention that entailed massacres by the Syrian army right, left, and center, including massacres of Hizbullah fighters in Fathallah barracks in February 1987. This is not to mention the intervention by Syria on the side of Israel's clients like in 1976. He argues that Syrian regime should be supported because the alternative would be a client of Israel. That sounds insulting to the Syrian people: who says that Syrian people would not be more anti-Israel: although it is certain that Saudi Arabia and Israel will work hard to sponsor and cuddle whatever regime comes after Asad. So Hizbullah's strong stance on Bahrain and it weak stance on Syria can only reinforce the sectarian reputation of its foreign policy orientations.

"Monarchical solidarity is, of course, the ultimate bond, at a time when the republican dynasties of Egypt, Libya, Syria and Tunisia have come unstuck or look shaky. A common joke these days is that the GCC should be renamed the “Gulf Counter-Revolutionary Club”. (thanks Khelil)

"French defence company Dassault Aviation is in talks with Libya over the sale of 14 Rafale fighter jets, in a deal that could be concluded before August 11, French business daily La Tribune said on Friday. A Dassault Aviation spokesman could not immediately be reached to comment on the report. The Rafale multirole combat aircraft is a flagship programme for the French defence industry but has had problems attracting export buyers." (thanks John)

"Hundreds of Egyptians, emboldened by their revolution, have also rallied in a series of demonstrations here to call for an end to the blockade. A recent demonstration outside the Israeli Embassy led to clashes with security forces that left several wounded and sent nearly 200 to jail. Signs, T-shirts and bumper stickers calling for a new Palestinian “intifada,” or uprising, have proliferated around Cairo."

"Israeli sources told "Globes" that the Ministry of Defense and Ministry of Foreign Affairs believe that the US charges against Ofer Brothers Group are based on a misunderstanding. The sources said that Israeli officials are in contact with the US State Department to clarify the issue and to get the Ofer Brothers' Singapore company, Tanker Pacific Ltd., off the list of companies suspected of violating the sanctions against Iran. Sources inform ''Globes'' that Ministry of Defense officials contacted representatives of Ofer Brothers in Israel for clarifications. The company officials said that the ship was sold to a Dubai-registered company called Crystal Shipping, which did not, and does not, appear on any blacklist of companies that the US administration bans trading with." (thanks Yassine)

"Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has downplayed the importance of the social networking website for the popular revolutions that toppled presidents in Egypt and Tunisia. Zuckerberg said that the wave of protests against autocratic governments sweeping through the Arab world could have been organized using other websites." It can't get any dumber than this. It is about which website. I say it was the Kim Kardashian blog that caused the Arab protests, while others say it was the website of People magazine that caused it. Do people know how dumb they sound when they write trash such as this?

Look at the language: "Iraqi Shi'ite militia fighters led a massive rally of followers of a hard-liner anti-American cleric on Thursday, marching in Baghdad in a show of defiance as Iraqi leaders weigh whether to keep U.S. troops in the country beyond the end of the year." They are described as "Shi`ite militia fighters" in order to belittle the protest movement against the American occupation. And even if they were, they have no right to protest against the foreign occupation of their lands? And how do people under occupation organize themselves if not in militias? How did French resistance to Nazi occupation organize itself?

Look at this piece of trash on gays in Israel: the writer is at pains to be defensive on the subject and has to drag Islam and Iran into the mix, only to justify homophobia in Israel: "In Orthodox Judaism, as with traditional streams of Islam and Christianity, homosexuality is generally frowned upon. Gay observant Jews may be ostracized by their families, while in the Muslim world, gays can face violence. In Iran, for instance, homosexuality is punishable by death." Of course, in traditional Christianity and in Orthodox Judaism, hostility to gays exceeds the few vague references in the Qur'an. But Israeli writers, very much like classical anti-Semites, are so obsessed with their hatred of Islam and Muslims that they have to bring it in no matter what. Furthermore, openly or semi openly "gay" leaders (like Sultan Qaboos) have served as heads of state in Arab and Muslim lands but not in Israel.

"A 25-year-old [Syrian] university student tells Amnesty International of the beatings and torture he and other detainees suffered while held in a sports stadium after he was seized with his 73- year-old father by security forces from their home in the coastal town of Banias on 8 May."

This annoying guy is a chief propagandist for Prince Salman and his sons. He is editor-in-chief (whatever that means in Saudi media) for the mouthpiece of Prince Salman and his sons, Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat. Here, he urges caution regarding allowing women to drive. He said that allowing women to drive in Saudi Arabia is more grave and dangerous a matter than lifting the state of emergency in Syria or Egypt. Kid you not.

So Sistani (seen above) was asked about sex with a girl who is nine years old. He said: that "it is not permissible to enter the wife before she completes her nine-year old, whether intercourse was continuous or interrupted. As for the rest of enjoyments, like touching with desire or kissing or embracing or entering between legs, they are fine."

"His Majesty King Abdullah on Saturday inaugurated the Jordan Interactive Gaming Laboratory, established under a Royal initiative, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. The lab, which was opened yesterday on the sidelines of the first Jordan-US Business Forum, aims to provide technical training, resources and equipment for start-ups in the field of game development. Established with support from the King Abdullah II Fund for Development (KAFD) and the Information and Communications Technology Association of Jordan (int@j), the lab aims at boosting the electronic games industry to turn Jordan into a regional hub for game developers." (thanks anonymous)

"Unlike in Syria, there was no breach of the fence itself, nor any attempt at one, but in the minds of the Israelis, the threat justified the firing of live rounds into a crowd. A troop of Lebanese soldiers sent in to quell the crowd cowered on the ground some twenty yards from the fence, unable to calm either the pro-Palestinian demonstrators or the Israelis." (thanks David)

What a shame. Another reason for me to always denounce and oppose the American University of Beirut, and to call for its nationalization, along with all other colonialist/missionary universities in our midst. AUB will award James Wolfensohn an honorary doctorate. Can you imagine? A symbol of all what is wrong with Western patronizing and capitalist exploitation of the developing countries. He was close to Rafiq Hariri (like all bad men in Western capitals), and it seems he is being rewarded for the friendship. AUB progressives should categorically reject this nomination and protest against it, I say. He also was a tool for Bush's White House in Palestine. Enough said.

"The only man to protest on Saudi Arabia's day of rage has suffered in prison, his family say. Khaled al-Johani was arrested minutes after going to the courthouse in Riyadh and giving a BBC interview in which he called for democracy and described the country as a big jail."

"I interviewed several AIPAC delegates in the streets outside the conference. While few, if any, of them were able to demonstrate the slightest degree of sophistication in their understanding of the Israel-Palestine crisis, they had been briefed inside on how to respond to critics. No one I spoke to would concede that Israel occupied any part of Palestinian territory; none would concede that Israel had committed acts of indiscriminate violence or that it had transferred Palestinians by force; one interviewee could not distinguish Palestine from Pakistan. With considerable wealth and negligible knowledge — few had spent much time inside Israel — the delegates were easily melded by the cadre of neoconservative and Israeli “experts” appearing in AIPAC’s briefing sessions."

"Alarmed by the calls for Mr. Mubarak’s prosecution, the Saudi royal family has for weeks urged Egypt’s current military rulers to avoid harsh treatment, fearing that it could intensify unrest in the region, according to Saudi officials and a Western diplomat."

A sign that this is a man who was hand picked by Western governments has no standing with his own people whatsoever. None whatsoever. I read the news about his heart attack in Western media but saw nothing about it in Arabic press. I mean, who cares whatever befalls this man. When Yasir `Arafat--as much as I detested him--would get a cold, it was national news in the region.

"Saudi Arabia is the only country that bars women from driving. But the topic remains a highly emotional issue in the kingdom, where women are also not allowed to vote, or even work without their husbands’, or fathers’, permission. For religious puritans, the ban on women driving is a sign that the government remains steadfast in the face of a Western onslaught on Saudi traditions. A political cartoon here once depicted car keys attached to a hand grenade."

Woe to the day when Thomas Friedman, of all people, offers ideas for the Palestinian people on how to pursue...Israel's goals. Here is his plan: "Trust me, it would stimulate a real peace debate within Israel — especially if Palestinians invited youth delegations from around the Arab world to join the marches, carrying the Saudi peace initiative in Hebrew and Arabic." Yeah. He wants Arab youth to carry signs with the Saudi (i.e. Thomas Friedman) "peace" initiative. How nice.

"The World Bank said Tuesday it was willing to provide up to $6 billion to support political and economic change in Egypt and Tunisia and to help them weather declines in tourism and other industries. The money is intended to seed a broader package of international support for the two countries’ postrevolution governments. The World Bank wanted “to help the people there and seize the opportunities of historic change to modernize their economies and build more open and inclusive societies,” said the agency’s president, Robert B. Zoellick." As is known, Zoellick is a left-over from the Bush administration. I like their reference to "more open and inclusive societies"--just like apartheid South Africa which was a cuddled and favored child for Western governments.

Marxist Lebanese Youth leader, `Arabi `Andari, is recovering from wounds sustained from shots by Israeli terrorists at the Lebanese-Palestinian border last week. He hosted me for a talk last summer and I wish him full recovery.

"Israel still has far to go, however, before it can truly call itself the Silicon Valley for water. Its domestic market is small. Its neighbours, though also desperate for water, are for some reason reluctant to seek help from Israelis." For some reason? Are you kidding me? (thanks Khelil)

Samir `Atallah is good. This Lebanese columnist is a school in Arab journalism. He really is: it is the school of prostration before any passing oil prince or Sheikh. He made a living from embarrassing himself for the amusement of polygamous royal potentates. Here, he pays tribute to the rulers of Dubai. (thanks Alain)

Like most Arabs I know, As-Safir newspaper could not help but notice that US Congress in the presence of Netanyahu appeared and sounded just like "third world parliaments." At any moment yesterday, I was expecting the Zionist throng to chant: With Blood, with Spirit, we sacrifice ourselves for you, O Netanyahu.

Do you notice that the sanctimonious Western governments and their allies among Western human rights organizations barely say a word about the continuous butchery by the Yemeni dictator? Sometimes you get the impression that those forces speak only when authorized by Zionist political forces in Western capitals. That explains why they all remained silent (or supportive) when Mubarak was killing his people. He was friendly to Zionism. That is all that matters.

Yesterday, on the anniversary of Israel's humiliating withdrawal--expulsion, really--from South Lebanon, Southern Lebanese mounted this giant structure to remember the recent victims of Israeli terrorist gunfire at the Lebanese-Palestinian border and to raise this slogan: "Returning, Certainly." (As-Safir)

A reader protested against my post on Sistani. He said I failed to note the context in the section in which Sistani calls on men to not beat up women with bad intentions. So I owe my readers an apology because I failed to note that Sistani calls on men to harbor good intentions when they beat up women?

I try to blog today and it asks me for my password and then it rejects it although i can sign in fine to gmail. But i cant blog in on internet explorer at all on my computer. And on my phone it goes nuts when i try to log in. I can sign in on Farah's computer and phone.

Muhammad `Ali Husayni is an alleged cleric who claims that he headed a group in Lebanon that is called "The Arab Islamic Resistance". He was clearly funded by Saudi Arabia and Saudi propaganda outlets (also known as Saudi media) vigorously promoted this crackpot and showed footage of two of his men "training for resistance". He visited Saudi Arabia and even met with the illiterate and polygamous king. I mocked him in Al-Akhbar articles and then immediately received a death threat from him. The threat was taken seriously in Lebanon (certainly by my sister, Mirvat who contacted the Minister of Interior, Ziyad Barud). I am told that there were political forces who sent him messages to the effect that he should desist. A year or so later, he tried to add me on Facebook. I declined. And then one of his men added me and I quickly realized that it was him because he would always post promotional materials for the group and I then unfriended him. So now we learn that the guy has been watched for a while and that his contacts with Israeli intelligence is reportedly poven, and he has been arrested on charges of spying for Israel. A spy for Israel who is funded by Saudi Arabia: and you still doubt my theory of the Saudi-Israeli alliance?

So I was reading in volume 3 of Sistani's book, Minhaj As-Salihin. I was reading his section on Nushuz (the section of wife's disobedience to her husband). He said taht Nushuz happens when "she breaks from the obligatory obedience to her husband, when she does not allow him to enjoy her as he deserves, and that includes non-removal of the repulsive (elements) that are contrary to enjoying her and deriving pleasures from her, and to abandoning cleaning and make up..." (p. 106). In matter number 353 (p. 107) he cautions that when the husband hits the wife he should avoid "bloodying her or blackening her skin or making it red."

Avatar, the movie was OK, although it had its typical share of explosions and predictable visual effects. The politics of the movie were rather great and courageous: the analogy to US invasion of Iraq was not even masked. But typical of "good" movies, the White Man has to be the hero. The natives (just as in Lawrence of Arabia) could not rebel on their own. They need a White Man to lead them by the hand.

"Business was fairly slow for the revolution's souvenir sellers in Cairo's Tahrir Square last Friday. Only a few thousand remained at center stage, cheering a woman who spoke about prosecuting the members of the old regime to the full extent of the law. A poster showed former President Hosni Mubarak with a noose around his neck. Another speaker, young and dynamic, doing his best to energize the thinning crowd, called out passionately: "Israel, leave Egypt alone.""

Really. This is a typical story. They let the two fellows tell stories and anecdotes about the situation in Syria: and their propaganda basically allows the Syrian regime propaganda to talk about a foreign conspiracy (of course, there is a foreign conspiracy in Syria but the underlying causes for the uprisings is largely domestic and indigenous). Look at one guy: "“They are using these tactics to cut off communication for the people,” said Dr. Radwan Ziadeh, director of the Damascus Center for Human Rights Studies. He said the Facebook pages of at least two close friends had been recently hacked and now featured conspicuously pro-government messages." Anything they say becomes news. Then the other guy: "said Ammar Abudlhamid, a Syrian activist based in Maryland who was one of several Syrian exiles to help organize delivery of satellite phones, cameras and laptops into the country earlier this year." I have one question: what would happen to an American living in Maryland if he admits to the New York Times that he helped in the "delivery" of satellite phones, cameras, and laptops" into, say, the opposition in Bahrain? Would he not be put on trial on terrorism charges?

Comic by Terry Furry, reproduced from "Heard the One About the Funny Leftist?" by Cris Thompson, East Bay Express

As'ad's Bio

As'ad AbuKhalil, born March 16, 1960. From Tyre, Lebanon, grew up in Beirut. Received his BA and MA from American University of Beirut in pol sc. Came to US in 1983 and received his PhD in comparative government from Georgetown University. Taught at Tufts University, Georgetown University, George Washington University, Colorado College, and Randolph-Macon Woman's College. Served as a Scholar-in-Residence at Middle East Institute in Washington DC. He served as free-lance Middle East consultant for NBC News and ABC News, an experience that only served to increase his disdain for maintream US media. He is now professor of political science at California State University, Stanislaus. His favorite food is fried eggplants.

The comments that appear in the comments' section are unedited and uncensored. The thoughtful and thoughtless, sane and insane, loving and hateful, wise and unwise ideas that they contain do not represent the Angry Arab. They only represent those who write them, whoever they are.